DETROIT -- The Tigers had to take a reign check. Poised to clinch their third straight American League Central title, and mathematically needing both a win over the White Sox and an Indians loss to the Astros to make it happen, the Tigers got neither.
A 6-3 loss to the ChiSox, coupled with an Indians win, kept the magic number at two for another day, meaning the earliest the Tigers can clinch the division is Tuesday in Minnesota. The Indians are off Monday, so the Tigers can take at most one game off the number to eliminate Cleveland.
“I feel like we gotta win two games somehow. Of course you like the spot you’re in, but that doesn’t really mean anything,” Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. “We gotta go out and win a couple games. It’s just that simple. There’s no secret to what we gotta do. We’ll pack up, we’ll get a bite to eat, and head to Minnesota.”
And it also means that the Tigers, who played their final home game of the regular season Sunday, won’t be able to celebrate a clincher at home, yet again. The last time they did so was 1987.
Big disappointment that it didn’t happen at home?
“You said the key word, ‘big.’ I don’t want to say it’s a disappointment, but we wish we could’ve gotten it done in front of the fans. It would’ve been nice,” Torii Hunter said. “But Cleveland won already, so we wouldn’t have gotten it done already.”
A disappointment at all?
“No. I think that’s one of those ‘perfect touches’ but I don’t look at it like that (disappointing). We gotta win two games, that’s all,” Leyland said. “The fairytale deal would’ve been to do it here, sure. But we gotta try to win two games somewhere.”
Detroit finishes the home season with 51 home wins, its fifth straight season with 50 or more wins at home. The Tigers, who went over the three-million mark in attendance for the fourth time in franchise history on Saturday, finished the home campaign with 3,083,397, the second-most in franchise history. The franchise record of 3,202,645 was set in 2008.
“Probably not (surprising) anymore, to be honest with you. I hate to say you get spoiled, but I guess you do. I think I wanna say it’s been four times since I’ve been here (2007, 2008, 2012, 2013) that three million people came through the turnstiles. That’s pretty good,” Leyland said.
“It doesn’t surprise me anymore. You just know the loyalty of the fans here, and you know they’re going to come out in numbers, and they’ve proven that ever since I’ve been here. It’s not really a surprise anymore, but that doesn’t mean it’s less appreciated. It’s still precious for us.”
And it’s something that keeps the players going through the marathon season.
“I’ll tell you a little story. When my dad started working here, he came over in the middle of that season in 2003,” said catcher Alex Avila, whose father is assistant general manager Al Avila. “I remember coming, we moved up here during that summer and I remember coming to the games and this place, there was 30,000 people on the weekends easy, 35,000 people. That team lost a lot of games. That year the Marlins won the World Series and I would go to Marlins games and there weren’t nearly as many fans in that stadium and that was the year they won the World Series. That tells you something about this town and the people. They enjoy going to baseball games. I’ve always thought it’s a baseball town. It’s a lot of fun knowing that you have fans that are going to come out every day. ...
“It helps me out in those middle of the summer days when I just don’t feel like catching that day and you walk out there and you hear the murmur of the crowd. You walk out there and your adrenaline starts to kick a little bit. It definitely helps.”
Like they had in Saturday’s monumental comeback win by the Tigers, the White Sox again took an early lead, with Connor Gillaspie scoring on a first-inning RBI single by former Tiger Avisail Garcia.
One of the guys Garcia was traded for, shortstop Jose Iglesias, did not play, still out with a left hand contusion. Miguel Cabrera, the man Garcia was often mistaken for, did not play either, after his sore groin flared up in Saturday’s comeback.
Leyland said after the game that Cabrera had been available to pinch hit at most, and Iglesias only to pinch run.
“I told Skip, you need me anytime, any chance to get me in the eighth and ninth, be ready to go out there and give an at-bat,” Cabrera said.
Leyland was trying to find the right spot for it, but that opportunity never came.
Prince Fielder tied it with one swing of the bat in the fourth inning, depositing an 89 mph fastball from Erik Johnson about halfway up the right-field seats.
That would not last.
Chicago fought back with three runs in the fifth inning, the first two on Gillaspie’s triple over Austin Jackson’s head in center field, and the next one on Garcia’s bloop single to shallow left, that dropped in between three Tigers, making it 4-1.
Anibal Sanchez was done after the 25-pitch inning, lasting just five frames, only the second time in his last 13 starts he’s gone fewer than six innings. The four earned runs allowed dropped him out of the American League ERA lead, as well.
He left the game in line for his first loss since July 19, a span of 12 starts ago. He’d gone 7-0 with four no-decisions in the interim.
“He just didn’t have it today. ... He looked a little flat today. Those things happen, and that’s what happened today. He looked a little flat,” Leyland said. “We had a real heck of an emotional game last night, and we come back today and got some hits. But basically it comes down to what I always talk about: It’s about pitching, and today one of our aces just wasn’t sharp.”
Reliever Evan Reed gave up two runs in the seventh on a bases-loaded double by Jeff Keppinger, making it 6-1.
Detroit got one run back in the bottom of the seventh, on Jackson’s bases-loaded sacrifice fly.
After that, the Tigers tried another ninth-inning comeback, but fell three runs short.
Brayan Pena led the ninth off with a pinch-hit double, followed by a single by Omar Infante. Ramon Santiago’s fielder’s choice scored Pena to cut it to 6-3.
“Oh, man, trust me, in the dugout ... we were looking at each other like, ‘Can we do it AGAIN?’ ” Hunter said. “It was pretty funny. The atmosphere in there just started to loosen up. (White Sox reliever Matt) Lindstrom shut that door for us.”Matthew B. Mowery covers the Tigers for Digital First Media. Read his “Out of Left Field” blog at opoutofleftfield.blogspot.com.

About the Author

Detroit Tigers beat writer for The Oakland Press in Pontiac, Michigan. Mowery has spent 19 years covering sports, from preps to pros. He’s been honored with more than 25 awards for writing. Reach the author at matt.mowery@oakpress.com
or follow Matthew B. on Twitter: @MatthewBMowery.